


A Very Small Prompt Fic

by Verecunda



Series: A Better Shape [3]
Category: Dickensian (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Ficlet, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-12
Updated: 2017-11-12
Packaged: 2019-02-01 10:32:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 386
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12703170
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Verecunda/pseuds/Verecunda
Summary: In which there are feelings in the office.





	A Very Small Prompt Fic

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [this prompt meme](http://fictorium.tumblr.com/post/146970581000/send-me-characters-and-a-letter-and-ill-write) on Tumblr, for fandom-butterfly who requested Jaggers + L (a stolen kiss).

“With respect, Miss Havisham, I don’t understand why you bother to employ me as your legal advisor, when you never attend to a single word of the counsel I give.”

“A courtesy, Jaggers, that’s all. For propriety’s sake.” She gave him that particular smile that meant only trouble for him, and went on, “Besides, I clearly remember you saying that my handling of that Bounderby affair was the most impressive bit of business you ever saw in your life.”

Despite himself, he smiled. “So I did.” And added, inwardly, “God help me.”

It seemed to go understood, all the same, for she laughed and looked at him affectionately. “Poor Jaggers. I do make life difficult for you, don’t I?”

He could answer that readily enough. “Yes. Yes, you do.”

 _No feelings in the office._ That was the first rule he had laid down in his mind after getting his articles. It was an excellent rule, and generally it served him very well. But Amelia had proven the exception, as she had proven the exception to just about every single one of his dictums. He could strike terror into the hearts of criminals, jurymen, and judges alike, but before her, he was helpless.

She was still smiling: vividly happy, beautiful, and bright - almost defiantly bright in the middle of his dismal office. The one truly good thing in his life, unmarred by the Newgate grime that gathered in every other corner of it. Too good for him, certainly.

He had no business kissing her - certainly not in that office, certainly not with Mr. Bucket waiting outside to speak with him upon a matter of police business, and a case starting at the Bailey in less than an hour. But he did so, anyway. It was, like so many of their moments together, snatched from beneath the noses of the rest of the world; but was in these moments, with Amelia, that he could afford to be human. The trick was removing all trace of it once the moment had passed. 

Though, when he at last let her go and saw her to the door, watching as she swept radiantly past Mr. Bucket in the outside office, the inspector’s half-smile and look of wry intelligence in his direction suggested that this time, he had not been wholly successful.


End file.
